Computer Networks

The Computer Networks course aims to provide a solid understanding of how the Internet works in order to train the ability to analyse communication requirements, design and develop distributed systems for the following application domains: web applications for both fixed and mobile devices; e-commerce in the music field; multimedia services such as digital TV, web radio, audio-video streaming; augmented reality. It also provides expertise on the characteristics of multimedia traffic on the network, and on the fundamentals of multimedia information coding. The course offers a basic understanding of the aspects of privacy and integrity of user data, and of the policies implemented by Internet protocols to support them.

By the end of the course, the student must be able to: describe the functioning of Internet protocols, the requirements of applications in terms of services provided by the Internet, and the characteristics of network traffic generated by applications; establish correlations between services, functionalities and mechanisms implemented by different cooperating protocols; discuss the possible consequences of the behaviours of protocols and the network on the privacy and integrity of user data; evaluate the adequacy of the adoption of various protocols based on the requirements of the applications, and the characteristics of the devices and the network; understand technical and scientific literature regarding communication technologies and tools for supporting network-based applications in the musical and multimedia fields; present, in written or oral form, reports in the professional field considered, using appropriate and accurate technical-scientific terminology.